To ask for your experiences with Bath/strange atmospheres

Now that you mention it Anne, I don't especially like the part of the M6 passing through SW Scotland. No bad experiences, just a feeling of nothingness.

That radon map is interesting.
I've never been to Bath but Oban feels that way to me - miserable, heavy, menacing. I couldn't wait to leave. There's also a stretch of the road between England and Scotland that always makes me feel as though something bad happened there. I hate driving through it and have spent quite a bit of time researching whether anything happened there. It has such a strong sense of menace. Interestingly, it shows dark on the radon map.

I don't like Glastonbury town but love the tor

This thread is interesting. I have family in Bath and visit regularly. It’s fine for a weekend but I wouldn’t like to live there. I find it a bit depressing outside of seeing my family. Agree with others about Glastonbury. I would have said I like different and quirky but didn’t like Glastonbury. Apologies to anyone who lives there but I felt there was lost souls from the festival who can’t find their way home. But I really like Portland though.

I've been in many places where I feel there has been oppression, and not very nice atmospheres. I don't think everyone always believes it but I was happy to leave Glastonbury after visiting once. My spirit felt a huge sigh of relief

I had the worst fish and chips ever in bath. Very expensive and we got a fish portion like you'd get in a box out the freezer at farm foods and about a dozen hard, over cooked and going cold chips.

Argh cromford stupid phone

I meant wirkswirth sorry although cromform is off too.

I work in Buxton and am inclined to agree with you. I live in Macclesfield and have to do the “cat and fiddle” drive over which can be either incredibly bleak and depressing, or beautiful and awe inspiring depending on the weather/my mood.

I live in Macclesfield too and do that dtive a lot. I have always thought Buxton seemed a charming town and I quite like the drive, unless the weather is really bad. Mind you if I was doing it every day for work I might think otherwise!

Isn't there supposed to be a haunted bookshop in Buxton? Sure I have read that somewhere.

(BTW Wonder if we will have to have a new name for that road if the new owners of The Cat and Fiddle change its name?)

*I had a strange experience in Hastings

Only way I can describe the feeling was that it was overwhelming menacing*

I totally agree with this. I grew up in the South Coast and have always said to my family from a young age, that Hastings has a strange feeling and II could feel Pirates!

Now obviously as an adult and knowing the history of the town, it's understandable.
I got similar vibes in Exeter. Near the castle. Creepy

Interestingly I've been to Buxton a couple of times recently and liked it.

I lived outside of Bath for 18 months. It never felt creepy. But I agree with the poster who described it as being empty despite being full of people.
I love big cities and can walk and mooch for hours, but everytime I went to bath I left as soon as I had got what I came for.
No real buzz to the place or identity.
Very very bad traffic too. Some beautiful buildings but again I felt like I wasnt interested in exploring them, which again is odd and not like me.

I agree with bettedaviseyes about Buxton such a creepy place!! There was a shop that sold shabby chic bits n bobs which I love, it had a cellar you could go down to that had shabby chic furniture in I got halfway down the stairs and had this overwhelming feeling if I went any further I would be locked down there!! ( There was a heavy door with a bolt at the top of the stairs). I find a lot of places in Derbyshire creepy cromford particularly it feel as though you are in a Stephen king novel even the church there feels wrong!

I felt exactly the same about Edinburgh when I was at uni there. I loved Glasgow though.

I agree about the horrid vibe in Buckinghamshire - Aylesbury, Wycombe area. Interesting. Broaden that area a bit to include Hemel/Watford and I've lived there most of my life, and never liked it. Ugly towns and people with a very mean attitude: either aspirational, materialistic wannabe middle class types who look down their noses, or aggressive chavs - the two types not being mutually exclusive. It's got a bit nicer as more and more educated/professional/arty types get priced out of London and rock up here. I'd never thought of it as having any kind of "vibe" though, it's just soulless and has tended to attract unfriendly people. Hastings is basically Hemel on sea, hence the menacing feel.

I loved Bath and thought it had an amazing ambience, but perhaps that's to do with living on the Herts/Beds/Bucks border: anywhere else has to compare favourably! I went there once, in the early 90s, for a summer school. We did all the tourist stuff like the costume museum and Roman baths by torchlight, and it blew me away. I had no idea there was a university there, if indeed it was a university then. Bath and Brighton are my happy places, though I haven't been to either for more than a decade. Maybe that's why I chose my French village, which is full of tall sandstone houses. Some people have said they find it oppressive and I just assume they aren't very familiar with French villages! :)

This is something a lot of architects have taken very seriously in the past. Look into glastonbury, stone hedge, laylines and Milton Keynes.

Glastonbury seems to attract troubled people. I know a few people who've developed massive drug addictions and then hung around the town for months on end, in the guise of working for the festival. So there are definite social problems adding to the vibe. When we visited it did have a weird atmosphere. The shops and cafes were busy but the streets were empty and I felt like I just wanted to leave.

My other uneasy place is Norfolk. No offence to Norfolk residents on here, but I always feel like I'm being stared at and that people are angry or suspicious of me? Like, the feeling you get when you are in a small village and go into the local pub and everyone stares at you. Twice I've had people kick off and scream and swear at me over minor things. Weird vibe.

Everybody who has ever been to Withernsea feels this way about it, though its not hard to see why. Completely bleak.

A lot of places mentioned on here are very ancient briton sights.

Im exactly like this with Leeds.

And can I add a vote against Brighton. Just hate it and gave ip trying to like it spmewhere in the early 90s. Can find no charm in the place but it was about the only place we cld afford as young people to have a day out to so I tried to convince myself it was wonderful.

Drogheda co. Louth. Migraine every tine we went. And then when I was taken to see Oliver Plunketta shrivelled skull in the cathedral. Well. That was the end of it for me
Nightmares.
Just visited Berlin and maybe it's my imagination but there is a air about it.

I haven't been to Glastonbury, but have heard others mention an odd vibe. Have been to Hastings, that was depressing.

I wonder if the radon thing could be at least a partial explanation. Maybe those born in high radon areas dont feel the effects the same, which would account for some differences of opinion.

I hate Norfolk. The area around Cramer. I felt it had really weird energy and it felt sinister.
Don't like Plymouth or Newquay either.
Ageee Surrey commuter towns are as depressing as hell.

Cheddar Gorge was mentioned, and I also found that place creepy and gloomy. Mind you, I was with Ex, which certainly didn't help. OTOH, I saw a bloke there who seriously ignited the Phwoar factor, I couldn't take my eyes off him, never felt anything as hot as that before. Never felt that way about Ex, ever.

Such an interesting post! Another Bath Uni alumni here and I hadn't really realised until reading this that I felt the same. I attributed it to being homesick (although I never moved back home since being 17 so odd in itself). Could never settle or relax, always looking forward to the next time I knew I would be leaving. Strange because I found it picturesque, varied, and welcoming on the whole, but the aura of the place used to really affect my mental health too